Playlist Challenge: Trains Edition
This one is also fairly easy if you think about it: 5 train songs. Maybe not as easy as rain, but not hard either. A personal aside: this post was inspired by a marathon session of Mexican Train dominoes played by our family on Sunday to celebrate the start of summer vacation.
1. ”Driver 8″ – REM. Kicking it off with a straight forward train song.
2. “I Often Dream of Trains” – Robyn Hitchcock. Some nice, train-themed guitar psychedelia.
3. “Peace Train” – 10,000 Maniacs. This cover of a Cat Stevens song was included in the original track list for the album “In My Tribe,” then deleted from subsequent pressings after Stevens changed his name to Yusuf Islam and said some objectionable things about the fatwa on Salman Rushdie. I still like the song, and I like the Maniacs’ version of it.
4. ”Last Train to Clarksville” – The Monkees. I really like this song. Yes, the Monkees were the pre-fab four, but they had some good tunes, including this one. Should I have gone with “Ticket to Ride” here? Probably.
5. “Time Bomb” – Old 97′s. But for the extenuating circumstances, this song probably wouldn’t fit on the list. It really only mentions a train in one line of the chorus (“Having her on my brain’s like getting hit by a train”). But the song also has a runaway-train rhythm. And this is a band that was named after a train. Or, more precisely, it’s a band that was named after a song about a trainwreck. Many have claimed that “Wreck of the Old 97s” (first recorded in 1924 and covered countless times since) was the first hit country song. ”Time Bomb” is also the last song played at every Old 97′s concert. Once the band plays it, you can go home, confident that there will be no more encores.
Posted on June 5, 2012, in Pop Culture. Bookmark the permalink. 16 Comments.
Awesome. I actually already have made a train-themed mix CD. Where I live there is a major train yard nearby, and I often go sit near the tracks to take pictures of the graffiti on the train cars. Here are just a few of the reasons why I love it:
You already used a lot of my fave train songs. Here’s a few more:
Oh, I just remembered that I intended to put “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” on my list. I also have a few others in mind and I’m waiting to see who mentions them.
Love the photos.
1. “Driving the Last Spike” – Genesis
2. “Runaway Train” – Soul Asylum
3. “Don’t Stop Believin’” – Journey
4. “Passage to Bangkok” – Rush
5. “Jethro Tull” – Locomotive Breath
Can’t believe no one put Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues.
http://yt.cl.nr/N5Ts4M3irWM
Then his I Walk the Line (incidentally about trains – the sound emulates a train)
http://yt.cl.nr/CctaP71iNuQ
Also his 309
http://yt.cl.nr/X0hgBB0fisU
And The Evening Train
http://yt.cl.nr/8s83x9OU5Zk
To throw in one of his pals here’s Willie Nelson’s City of New Orleans
http://yt.cl.nr/AJMVj04lfyo
Some great ones already listed. Here’s mine:
Train Long-Suffering by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: http://youtu.be/5o8HJJmOMCA
The Train by Nits: http://youtu.be/xCuA-JZdMDM
Southbound Train by Nanci Griffith: http://youtu.be/IHcFSnuJZDI
This Train Is Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie (covered here by, well, you have to see it) http://youtu.be/Wi7MFZ84uSM
Take the A Train by Duke Ellington (a favorite version here): http://youtu.be/8tI2c6-Hu2g
Y’all have skipped some classics:
Orange Blossom Special – by lots of different folks, but I prefer Flatt & Scruggs
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCBdiutb-50&w=420&h=315%5D
Midnight Train to Georgia – Gladys Knight (remember her?) & the Pips
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v78-ftcqpNw&w=420&h=315%5D
Station Man – Fleetwood Mac (the only Danny Kirwan song I’ve ever heard on the radio)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24AeqJ8tdpo&w=560&h=315%5D
Long Train Running – Doobie Brothers
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP_NE4XZGAc&w=420&h=315%5D
Back on the Train – Phish
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXPvOLvLqm8&w=560&h=315%5D
(Even if you don’t like Phish, check out that last video).
I really love Driver 8, Downbound Train, and Jumping Someone Else’s Train. Really takes me back.
Wow, I never thought of Don’t Stop Believin’ as being a train song, but it works.
Just a bit of a quibble about 10,000 maniacs: The only reason Peace Train was deleted from subsequent versions of the album was that the band was forced by their label, over the band’s strenuous objections, to put it on the album in the first place. The label execs were nervous about the untested band’s ability to get a hit from the album’s existing songs, so they made them record a cover the popular Cat Stevens song Peace Train and put it on the album in order to guarantee that there would be at least one hit. After the album was certified platinum, and other songs on the album were proven to be hits, the band prevailed on the label to drop Peace Train from subsequent versions of the album, because they detested being forced to record it in the first place and thought it didn’t fit the album thematically.
It had nothing to do with Cat Stevens becoming Yusuf Islam and making statements about Rushdie, despite what Wikipedia says.
That’s interesting. I always thought it didn’t quite fit on that album too.
I’m not sure that’s true, MCQ. I specifically remember Natalie Merchant and the rest of the band making a statement denouncing Yusuf Islam at the time. If I have time, I’ll try to research the source.
Here’s a contemporary newspaper account. that supports my version of the story.
That’s an interesting quote, Greg, but it’s not consistent with what I read at the time. I’ll see if I can find that article.
The article I read was dated at the time the album came out, whereas this article is from the date of the next album. It seems to me that the bands objections to Cat Stevens’ statements were a later reason for getting rid of the song, whereas there were already tensions over the song at the time the original album was produced.
Here’s a RS article that’s similar to what I read at the time the album came out:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-albums-of-the-eighties-20110418/10-000-maniacs-in-my-tribe-19691231
It seems that the song was not removed from the album until after the issues arose about Cat Stevens’ Rushdie quotes, but the band didn’t want the song on the album in the first place for reasons having nothing to do with that, because it hadn’t happened yet. They just didn’t want a cover song on the album.
I’m surprised that Train in Vain isn’t already listed:
And of course there is Crazy Train:
Blue Train is one of John Coltrane’s best songs I think.
Peter Tosh did a cool version of Stop That Train:
Jack Johnson has a train song too:
Might be a stretch but since you took Crazy Train and Long train Runnin already…
Garbage – Hammering in my Head
(music starts at about a minute)
Glenn Miller – Chattanooga Choo Choo
Aerosmith – Train Kept a Rollin
(bonus: fan made video, lots of pics of trains)
Sheena Easton – My Baby Takes the Morning Train
Charlie Daniels Band – Orange Blossom Special
One of our boys LOVES books about trains (naturally, and Thomas) Wonder if he’ll be partial to songs about trains.
If anyone wants a big list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_train_songs
I can’t believe you posted that Sheena Easton song.